"The thing is so utterably unreasonable," she resumed, more calmly.
"Why did they let you start if they proposed afterward to hang a sword
above your head?"

"The Board was ignorant of this law, as was everybody else, until it
was brought to light by the applicant for cancellation," said Lee, "a
certain Rodriguez, of Rosita."

"Who is he?"

Bryant shook his head.

"Don't ask me. No friend, at any rate."

She regarded him steadily for a moment.

"Probably a man put forward by Mr. Menocal."

"I suppose so," said he.

"But the idea of expecting you to build all those miles of ditch in
ninety days and in the winter time! I wonder that you can be so calm."

"Why shouldn't I be calm? My mind's made up. I'm going to complete the
project on time."

The words were uttered in a matter-of-fact tone that impressed Louise
Graham far more than would any vehement assertion. As he had stated,
his mind was made up, quite made up on the point. Others might think
what they pleased: it carried no weight with him. The thing was
certain.

She examined the engineer with a new interest. There was a difference
in him, what would be hard to say. One couldn't exactly put finger on
it. Something in his gray eyes, perhaps; something in the sharper
stamp of his aquiline nose, of his lips, of his bronzed jaw; something
in his whole bearing. It went deeper than features, too; she sensed a
change in the spirit of the man from what it had been that day of his
going down to Kennard, when he strolled with her in her garden. He was
less bouyant, less manifest, less elated, but more poised and sure. A
change, yes.

Then her thoughts reverted to his tremendous undertaking.

"How long have you known this?" she inquired.

"Since the day before yesterday. Pat Carrigan, my contractor, and I
came to the capital at once to discuss the affair with the Board. The
news was--well, a good deal of a facer."

She nodded.

"It would be," were her words. "You'll need more workmen and horses,
of course."

"All I can get. Pat went to Denver last night, and the labour agencies
there and at Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Santa Fe, El Paso, and places
farther east doubtless by now are rounding up men. We picked up an
idle grading outfit yesterday in Santa Fe; it will be loaded and
started by to-night."

Her face became a little rueful.

"That all sounds so big that I hesitate to make the offer I had in
mind when I asked," she said.

"What was it, Miss